Each year, as thousands of people flock to comedy and theatre venues across the city, another more genteel festival is quietly getting on with its business in one of the most picturesque squares in the world.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival runs throughout August in Charlotte Square, central Edinburgh and is such a world-wide success that it is widely regarded as the reason that Edinburgh became the first city to be named world city of literature, by UNESCO, in 2004.

There are more than 700 separate events that take place here through August, ranging from writing workshops, readings, performances, discussions and talks, all by some of the most renowned literary figures in the world.

In the past visitors have had a chance to rub shoulders with the likes of J.K. Rowling, Zadie Smith, Harold Pinter, Alan Bennett, Alan Yentob, Sean Connery and Al Gore; even the Prime Minister put in an appearance in 2008.

The next festival will take place in 2009 from 15 – 31 August and promises 17 days of featuring contributions by 800 authors at 750 different events from a total of 40 different countries.

If you want to get involved why not a novel read before you go, you could even take part in the One-book one-Edinburgh campaign to celebrate 150th anniversary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birth, by reading his novel The Lost World. The idea is to get the entire city reading one book at the same time.